Thoughts On Hospitality

Dear Friends,

Today’s “thought” has to do with hospitality. It’s a virtue in most cultures. Here in the U.S. the Southern states pride themselves on “Southern Hospitality,” which does seem a bit more pronounced south of the Mason-Dixon line! Yet in many instances I found it even more pronounced in Europe, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras.

On one occasion when I served in the Dominican Republic between 1980-1982, we (a crew of 13 American teen boys, two adult men and one lady – 16 in all!) stumbled upon a village of blondish-haired Dominicans while hiking in the “Cordillera Central” – the highest mountain range in the country. I was told later they were descendants of Swedish Immigrants of the late 1860’s who fled the potato famine and gradually intermarried with the Dominicans.

Surprised to see us walk into their remote village, they warmly greeted us and asked if they could make lunch for us. When we said “yes,” some of the children promptly chased down a few chickens and took them to the kitchens of a couple of the small homes! The houses were primitive stick-frame homes, made with collected pieces of wood scraps, and having a thick bedding of banana leaves on the roof. We spoke our broken Spanish with the men and played with the children (while the ladies cooked the meal). Then they called us into the largest building – a one-room structure maybe 20 feet by 25 feet with a large table and chairs. 

As the “guests of honor” we were invited to eat first and told that they would eat after us. So, we sat down to eat the delicious chicken, rice, beans, and fried plantains. Then we stood up to let them sit, only to discover (to our great surprise mixed with embarrassment) that there was no food left for them. They had given it all to us. They planned it that way all along. The thought brought tears to our eyes. For them “hospitality” meant honoring their guests and giving them the best – even if they had to give us everything and go without. It was a humbling lesson in sacrificial hospitality.

In the States we can tend to entertain friends, but in the New Testament the word translated “hospitality,” from which we also get the word “hospital” is “philoxenia.” “Philo” means “love” and “xenia” means “stranger,” showing us that hospitality means, “love for the stranger.” It’s one of the things every Christian (and especially the elders or leaders in the church) are called to practice. Not entertaining friends, but loving complete strangers, which in Jesus day would have included washing their feet, nursing any blisters or cuts from long treks, offering them food and drink, and if necessary, a place in their house to sleep!

And with that in mind, I share a simple devotional thought I posted on my Facebook page the other day, after reading Mark 2:15-17 about Jesus eating with “sinners” at the house of Levi, the tax-collector. That written account made me think…

Who Should I Have Over for Dinner?
“Today I was reading about Jesus eating with “sinners,” the Gospel’s ‘code word’ for those whom religious people (usually the Pharisees) considered the “really bad people,” since we know all people are sinners. According to the Bible every one of us “falls short” of portraying the glory of God’s image in us, as Paul points out in Romans 3:23.

So, it got me thinking: Who do I tend to invite over for a meal? Who are the recipients of my hospitality? Who do I welcome into my home as special guests to share at my table? And you? Who do you tend to invite over?

For Jesus it was “sinners.” Actually, Jesus didn’t own a home. As he tells us, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man doesn’t even have a place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He had no house to invite people to. Instead, he befriended “sinners” and accepted invitations to their homes - the really bad sinners – like Levi the hated tax-collector, who collaborated with the foreign nation that had conquered them – the Romans who were occupying their homeland.

I do admit I tend to invite good friends in most cases. But given Jesus’ example of eating with “sinners,” maybe I need to rethink my, “Who should I invite over?” list…”

May we purposely seek to practice hospitality in the original sense, not uninviting our good friends so as to share with them, but adding in strangers. And not just strangers, but “sinners” (the really bad kind!) just like Jesus, so they can get to know the love of God for them by seeing that love lived out in His people.

Yours in the Bond of Gospel Living, Pastor Jeff